Friday Feature No-Tomato Crockpot Chili
Recently tomatoes have been cut from our diet. Catherine loves tomatoes and many of the recipes she cook are tomato based. Here’s the issue: tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, along with a few more of my favorite foods such as peppers and eggplants. In some people the nightshade plants make arthritis worse and eliminating nightshade foods can help keep arthritis at bay. The problem comes when one family member loves tomatoes and the other one now has to avoid them.
There are very few, if any substitutes for tomatoes, so Catherine has been on the hunt for ways to make her favorite dishes without tomatoes for the non-tomato eating half of our family, yet please the tomato-loving member. It’s been tough, especially with chili season upon us.
So, she set out to conquer the problem. Here’s one of the recipes she came up with: No-tomato Crockpot Chili. We hope you’ll enjoy it.
No-tomato Crockpot Chili
1 pound ground beef
½ large onion, diced
One garlic clove, diced – optional
2 cans of beans*
1 small can diced chilies, if the non-tomato eater can eat them without issues
1 can beefy mushroom soup (I used Campbell’s soup)
¼ cup water, or less if you want a thicker chili
Chili powder to taste
Spaghetti – optional
Salsa, your heat preference for the tomato-eating family members
Cheese for topping – optional
Break up ground beef in a large skillet and brown along with the diced onion and garlic.
Add beans and bean liquid, diced green chilies, soup, water, and chili powder to crock pot. Stir to mix well.
Drain beef mixture of fat and place in a crock pot. Stir to mix.
Cook on high for 2 hours or until hot, or on low 4-6 hours or until hot.
At serving time, place spaghetti in bottom of bowl and add beef chili.
For those who can eat green chilies and tomatoes, top their bowls with ¼ to ½ cup of salsa and 1 teaspoon of green chilies to each cup of the beef-soup-based chili. Stir lightly to combine.
*The bean liquids help make up for the loss of the volume of the tomatoes. You can use seasoned or unseasoned chili beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, or lentils. Your choice and you can mix and match beans types.
While your chili is cooking, settle into a comfy chair and check out our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
